The Testimony of the Spade by Thomas Geoffrey Bibby (1917-2001) - 1956

xviii+414+x with maps, figures, plates, illustrations, tables and index. Royal octavo (9 1/2" x 6 1/2") bound in original publisher's quarter red cloth with gilt lettering to spine over blue boards with a blind-stamped pictorial to cover in original jacket. First edition. This work was planned and written explicitly as a companion volume to Gods, Graves and Scholars, which dealt mostly with the Mediterranean world. It is the first popular book to trace consecutively the movements and the flowering culture of our early ancestors from the Alps north to Scandinavia, and from Russia to Ireland - from the cave-dwellers of France to the "barbarian" tribes described by Caesar and Tacitus and the Norse sagas. Condition: Jacket chipped slightly at corners and head of spine, small tears at hinges, price clipped else a very good copy in a very good jacket.